Hank Kalet

I pass this e-mail from New Jersey Policy Perspective along in its entirety because it pretty much sums up the way too many people in my business approach stories about work and workers:

Minimum Wage Hike is Bad ???
Framing the Issues is Crucial to Progress

The good news for working people in New Jersey is that the state’s minimum wage rose to $7.15 an hour on October 1. The bad news is that the state’s minimum wage rose to $7.15 an hour on October 1.

The good news-bad news equation, of course, reflects the reality that no one can support a family on $7.15 an hour. Many of you were part of the effort that won a two-stage increase to $7.15; you know we tried for more and that we couldn’t get it. That’s a fight for the future.

But something that adds to the frustration over working people not winning economic security is some of the press coverage of the recent increase. The emphasis of the stories is the burden that a $7.15 wage puts on businesses. For a couple of examples check out the Bergen Record and Philadelphia Business Journal.

My purpose here isn’t to beat up on the press, though it would have been nice if they’d sought out some working people to balance the gloomy business reaction. This is a symptom of a larger problem: the pre-occupation with the “business climate.” Sure, New Jersey’s economy needs businesses to thrive. But business climate as the dominant way of framing economic issues is troublesome for two reasons. One, real life is not so one-dimensional and, two, the impact on public policy is not always productive.

NJPP is working on some projects that we think will help in the effort to show the importance of the “working climate” in our state. We need to make sure that work is rewarded and working people are remembered.

I couldn’t have said this better.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

Nineteen experts from ESPN and only four of their World Series winners managed to get out of the first round — and just 12 still have Series teams alive. Ugh. So much for the experts. (Now they’re all picking the Mets and I have a deep sense of foreboding.)

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

Question: Who do you think is more selfish? They guy who changes positions to accommodate an inferior player at the same position? Or the guy who where’s the captain’s tag but refuses to come to his teammate’s aid when the going is rough? Just a question.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

The Record raises legitimate questions about one of the ideas making the rounds in Trenton these days: using the counties as a center of consolidated government.

Consolidation of services, municipalities and school districts not only makes sense, but is necessary to shrink the cost of government in the state.

That said, empowering the counties is problematic, because the same kind of disparities exist among the counties as do among municipalities. Hunterdon, for instance, is a rather rich county, especially when compared to an urban county like Hudson. And what about population difference? Middlesex is nearly three times as big as Mercer.

Of more significance, perhaps, is this point raised by the Record:

But making county government bigger and more powerful could be a double-edged sword. That’s because in New Jersey, county government is the seat of extensive political power and patronage, often wielded by party bosses.

The answer, the Record says, is campaign-finance reform:

An essential step in any plan to make county government more accountable and efficient must be to insist on comprehensive pay-to-play reform, so that numerous no-bid contracts are not awarded to political donors. There’s no point in turning over local services to the county if they are going to become plums awarded to political insiders.

The same could hold true in the case of large countywide school districts, which would have to award big contracts for transportation, purchasing and maintenance. Even if no political contributions were directly involved, patronage hiring and influence-peddling could easily occur.

This assumes, however, that pay-to-play and other campaign-finance issues are on the table right now. They should be, but they currently seem divorced from the property tax questions.

In the end, some kind of consolidation is going to happen — voters will not stand for nibbling around the property tax edges and there are few other ways to attack the spending sid. Talk of spending caps are foolish because they will only force a shift in costs to the state (not necessarily a bad thing because it would shift responsibility for services to the income tax) or irrationally constrain government from doing what citizens want government to do.

There also needs to be a discussion about revenues — about the income tax, about alternative local taxes, about revenue sharing and regional revenue schemes — or we will have created a mirage.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

Lisa Olson in The Daily News sums up why it is that New York’s National League team is still playing and that other team from the Bronx has started its post-season vacation:

They are Los Mets, the New Mets, a team that radiates charisma and chemistry. On paper, the Mets still can’t match the Yankees’ cumulative talent, but on the field, the Yankees can’t touch the Mets’ collective soul. It’s not just their timely hits, their smart baserunning and bullpen excellence. It’s how they’ve persevered through a rash of injuries that has ripped apart the starting rotation, and subjugated their egos for the greater good. It’s a team that doesn’t need 25 limousines to get where it’s going.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick